This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Guy Fieri spotted filming Diners, Drive-ins and Dives in Toronto

He must have brought the hair, but did he bring the car? Chef and greasy-spoon connaisseur Guy Fieri, seen here in his vintage Camaro, is filming for Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives in Toronto. (John Lee / FILE PHOTO)

By Michele HenryFood Reporter

Wed., Nov. 28, 2012

Watch for the hair! Guy Fieri, the bleach blond celebrity chef, Food Network star and recently slammed restaurateur, should be cruising around Toronto Thursday looking for this city’s best diners, drive-ins and dives.

Rumour has it the gruff luminary has touched down in this city and is already shooting a local episode of his popular television show Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. Fieri’s spending a few days filming this week before he hosts this weekend’s “Chef’s Challenge, The Ultimate Battle For a Cure,” a benefit for Mount Sinai Hospital.

He’s been dining, and filming, at some of this city’s most popular joints, such as Hey Meatball, Caplansky’s Delicatessen and, rumour has it, the Stockyards on St. Clair and the Lakeview Restaurant on Dundas St.

Staff at Caplansky’s report they’ve been ordered to keep their lips sealed when it comes to Fieri’s presence at the College St. restaurant. But someone who answered the phone said Triple D’s film crew was already on the site Wednesday and plans to shoot for two more days.

“It was fun,” he said, refusing to reveal his name or whether he had been on camera. “We were advised by the crew not to speak.”

Article Continued Below

Fieri’s been big news in the last few weeks, after New York Times food critic Pete Wells took him and his new Times Square restaurant to task for bad service, bad food and even bad food names.

Wells asked a mounting series of ever-more angry questions in his scathing review about why the experience at Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar was so disappointing.

“Is there a long refrigerated tunnel that servers have to pass through to make sure that the French fries, already limp and oil-sogged, are also served cold?” Wells asked in the review.

“Does this make it sound as if everything at Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar is inedible? I didn’t say that, did I?”

The day after the review came out Fieri went on The Today Show to defend himself and his newest haunt.

Fieri’s publicity team refused to grant an interview to the Star because the reporter refused to agree to not ask the chef about Wells’ review and Fieri’s other restaurants.

Speaking of restaurants, Fieri has also been filming part of Triple D at local joint Hey Meatball! The small College St. restaurant is chef Rod Bowers’ homage to “balls.”

Bowers confirmed the Tuesday shoot, saying it was “a long, tiring day” for him and Hey Meatball’s small staff. On the face of it, he and Fieri look like they’d have a lot in common. They’re both dads, physically big guys and have big personalities. But Bowers comes from a “thorough strong cooking background,” he says, while Fieri is “not a chef by trade.” And, Bowers said, after meeting Fieri: “Our taste in clothing is a little bit different too.”

Bowers wouldn’t say what Fieri ate at Hey Meatball.

Word on the street and in the blogosphere is that Lakeview Restaurant on Dundas St. at Ossington Ave. is another stop on Fieri’s list, as is the Stockyards, Smokehouse & Larder on St. Clair Ave. W.

Staff weren’t answering the phone at the popular chicken and rib joint Wednesday, but the answering machine said they would be closed Wednesday and Thursday “all day due to a film shoot.” The message said they’ll be reopening Friday morning.

Rumours about where else Fieri’s crew might land pointed to the Patrician Grill on King St. E.

But Terry Papas, who runs the restaurant with his brother-in-law Chris, said Fieri isn’t stopping in.

“It would have been great if he had come here,” he said. “We can dish it out as well as he does!”

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com